I’m quite a bit behind on this announcement, but my promotion at work has left me with a backlog of things to catch up on the the previous guy hadn’t done. Anyway…

I have completed typing Homecoming. The first draft comes in at 22 chapters. The final three are the only ones not yet relayed, so:

Chapter 20—Pages: 186 Word Count: 66341

Chapter 21—Pages: 196 Word Count: 69800

Chapter 22—Pages: 202 Word Count: 71670

Now, the word counts on the last half dozen chapters or so (not counting 22) are a bit off, I’ve discovered. I was using a different computer which apparently counts the words differently (and improperly)… In any case, as you can see, the final chapter is relatively short (comparatively) and it also fall short of my goal. This is, however, only the first draft.

I’ve got it out to a number of beta readers/editors right now, and am going to wait for their return before moving forward. I do have some ideas where there are openings that could be filled, characters that could be expounded upon, etc. We’ll see what it looks like when it returns.

I had hoped to start rewriting Eternal Retribution by now, but again, work (as well as the holidays) has put a pause on that. I do hope to get to it soon.

So, that’s where things stand at the moment. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to share any comments or questions, as well as the link to the site.

So, I’m here with some number updates. I’ve been working to finish up the digitizing, and while I have been typing, I haven’t been keeping this updated with my progress. So, I’ve got three for you right now.

Chapter 17—Pages: 152 Word Count: 54337

Chapter 18—Pages: 166 Word Count: 59470

Chapter 19—Pages: 177 Word Count: 63408

I hope to have the last three chapters of the the first draft transcribed to the digital realm by week’s end. I can’t be sure as of now, but I’m a little sad to say it’s appearing that the first draft might fall a bit short of my goal. We’ll have to see how it goes. With or without that, I’ve already been thinking about another chapter that could be added, though as it stands it might feel tacked on. It’ll probably work better as extensions within an existing chapter so it doesn’t much interrupt the flow, nor feel completely out of place. But that’s a decision for the future.

So, first off, I finished writing Homecoming and managed to do so within a day (read: beyond) of my goal of Halloween. Still pretty impressive, if I do say so myself (and I do, since this is my blog). I took a bit of time off from writing/editing/typing afterward to recharge and unwind. I’ve read a few book since then, and I gotta say I’m enjoying reading again.

Even so, I knew I needed to put some time into typing again, and I’ve done that today. Chapter 16 is finally typed up. I’ve got 6 more yet to type, but here’s the stats as they stand now:

Pages: 142′

Word Count: 50787

I’m not quite sure where my word count is going to end up in terms of my goal, but then again, I’m not sure what my editors are going to say about things either in the long run, so who knows. Anyway, thanks for stopping by.

I’m currently writing Chapter 18, and should be finished today. I’ll have to jump right in to Chapter 19. It’s looking like I’ll not be getting to do much more typing until I finish up the writing. Not that it’s unusual, but again it may be a bit before another update goes up.

Hey all, here with another update, though it has been some time. Let me assure you’ve I’ve not been idle in that time. I just haven’t been doing the typing as much. Let’s get right to it.

Pages: 125

Word Count: 44790

That’s close to 50,000, the ~word count from Eternal Retribution. I’ve got 15 and 16 written already as well, and between them, I should definitely have enough to get past that number.

I’ve done a bit of ‘planning’ and calculating, which is not usually the way I write. Putting together the proposed chapters I’ve got left, I determined that if I manage to finish writing each of the remaining chapters in 5 days or less (notebook, not typing), then I can be finished with Homecoming by Halloween. Chapter 16 was finished in 4 days, so I’m ahead of schedule so far. It’ll put a cramp on my reading, but I think this is going to be a nice final push to get the book done. If I can manage to finish other chapters within a shortened time as well, I may be able to squeeze some typing in along the way.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve got for now. With this schedule I’ve got going, I don’t know when I’ll update again, but hey, you guys all know this page has its periods of dormancy anyway. Thanks for stopping by. Leave a comment, drop me an email, shout at me on twitter even.

Well, it’s not Sunday, but I did manage to get this chapter typed up in relatively decent proximity to my hopes. It’s a crazy kind of feeling being only ~10,000 words shy of Eternal Retribution’s word count and still have so much to say. This on its own is almost enough to make me feel that much more successful in the endeavor this second time around.

Hmm…I’m realizing as I type this that I haven’t eaten in about 9 hours…that needs to be remedied. So, without further rambling…

So I’ve gotten behind again when it comes to typing the chapters as I finish them. I just finished up Chapter 12, but I’m currently a number of pages through writing 14. If I can manage, I’ll try to get 13 typed up tomorrow. However, as for the current numbers with the completion of Chapter 12:

Pages: 104

Word Count: 38,130

Perceptive perusers of my page (yes, I made up a word for alliteration’s sake) will notice this latest update has pushed me past my midway goal, as I figured it would in the last update, way back whenever that was. I’ve still got a full chapter yet to digitize, as well as finishing and typing 14.

While the end of the year is creeping up, I’m still confident I’ll have it finished up within 2012. At least the first draft, which is what I’m hoping for. I’ve been getting some minor typo and grammatical error proofs back from the start, so I know a lot of that will already be handled by the time I go to run through the ‘finished’ product. Aside from my much earlier projects, including the beginnings of Eternal Retribution I seem to be able to get what I want on paper on the first go. I know this isn’t often the case with many writers, but I hope to use it to my advantage to lessen the time needed to get this book to a publishable form.

I hope to publish the book early in 2013. If all goes well, I’m thinking somewhere in the first quarter of the year. I’ll update you more as time goes by. As always, thanks for stopping by.

No, I’m not talking about the state of my soul. Or my bank account. I’ve finished typing up Chapter 11! For those of you keeping score at home, that mean I’m caught up with chapters completely written and then digitized. I’ve got about three pages of Chapter 12 written out, and it still has a way to go yet. Based on the current word count, Chapter 12 will put me over the midway point towards my goal. Speaking of:

Pages: 96

Word Count: 34653

It feels nice to have caught up, though it seems weekends are the only times when I can get caught up with the typing. But hey, it gets done, so it’s not a bad thing. Thanks for stopping by.

First off, I’ll need to amend the last update a bit. Due to some unknown changing of font size, the page count was slightly off. I was at 77 pages, instead of 78, when I fixed the issue. Not even sure how it happened, but anyway…

I finished typing up Chapter 10 tonight (finally). While I did say that 9 was a bit longer than I originally expected, my estimate of 10 doubling 9 held up. Here’s the numbers.

Pages: 88 (time travel time!)

Word Count: 31776

I’ve not yet typed up Chapter 11. While it’s not as long as 10, it is a bit longer than 9. I’m not quite sure it’ll get me halfway to my goal or not. It’s possible, though. It’s also left me very close to finishing up the 70 sheet notebook, which is a nice visual marker of progress. I may have 11 finished before next weekend, I may not. It depends on my post-work activities, really. I’m sure there’ll be some gaming, and some Netflixing in there somewhere, so we’ll have to see how it goes. Spread the word, link the page, drop a line. Until next time.

Well, I’m part way through catching up. Finally typed up Chapter 9, and it actually turned out to be a bit more than I was expecting of it. Anyway:

78 pages

Word Count: 27507

Didn’t quite get all the typing done I wanted to, obviously. I’m probably not going to get anymore of it done tonight either…I’m feeling a bit tired. I’ll see what I can do about typing up a bit more between work shifts this week. It’ll be nice if I finish up before the weekend, but I’m not sure how likely that is to happen. Thanks for stopping by, as always.